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I e. HEDSTROIVI.

BLANK FEEDING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 5 I919- L325J'2m Patented Dec. 23,1919.

huefizli- GUS HEDSTROM, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO CAMERON CAN MACHINERY $0., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

BLANK-FEEDING MECHANISM.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, Gus Hnbs'rnoiu, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Blank-Feeding Mechanisms, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates in general to blank feeding mechanisms, and while it is capable of use for feeding blanks or sheets of various characters, the form of my invention herein illustrated is more particularly adapted for feeding sheet metal blanks or sheets to a can body forming machine.

One of the primary objects of my invention is the provision of a sheet feeding mechanism which will accurately deliver sheets one at a time from a stack of sheets in the magazine without liability of missing or feeding more than one sheet at a time.

Another object is to provide a sheet feeding mechanism which. will be simple in con struction and operation and one in which the various parts will operate in predetermined timed relation to accurately produce the desired feeding results.

Other objects and advantages of my in vention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following description, when consid ered in connection with the accompanying drawings. Referring to the drawings,-

Figure 1 is an end elevation of a sheet feeding mechanism embodying my invention; and

Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the line 22 of Fig. 1.

On the drawings, reference character 3 indicates a portion of the frame construction of a machine to which my invention is attached. This machine, in the present instance, is a tin can body forming machine, the details of mechanism of which it is unnecessary to illustrate as they may be of any well known or preferred construction.

The machine, however, comprises a pair of parallel side members 41 providing guideways in which reciprocate a pair of con nected feed bars 5 adapted to be reciprocated in these guideways by means of a lever 6 fulcrumed on a cross-shaft 7 and operated by cam or other suitable mechanism, not shown. lEach feed bar is provided at intervals with a pivoted feed dog or pawl. 8 adapted to en Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed May 5, 1919.

Patented ec... 23, 1919..

Serial No. 294.,853.

gage behind the rear edge of a sheet resting upon the side members 4: and by which the sheets are advanced through the machine by a step by step movement. The rear end of each feed bar is equipped with an inwardly extending portion 9 provided with an upstanding dog or finger 11, these fingers being adapted to engage the rear edge of a sheet disposed in the magazine and bowed downwardly, as shown in Fig. 1.

Upon the side members 1 are mounted the upright sides 12 of the magazine proper which are provided at their rear edges with guides 13 to retain a stack of sheets 14 in proper position, the forward edge of the sheets being retained in proper position in the magazine by a member 15 extending downwardly from a cross-bar 16 connecting the side members.

Beneath the magazine and disposed centrally thereof T have provided a suction cup or sucker-head, as it is termed, 17 which is mounted upon a bracket 18 carried by the frame 3 of the machine. This sucker-head is connected by a hose 19 with a reciprocatory suction pump 21, the piston 22 there in being reciprocated from an eccentric 23 mounted upon a shaft 24: which may be driven in proper timed relation from the main shaft of the machine.

The ends of the sheets in the magazine are supported upon plates 25, each of which are carried by a pair of posts 26 extending upwardly through and guided in the side members l andcarried at their lower ends upon a cross-head or bar 27, which in turn is mounted upon the upper end of a reciprocating post 28 guided in an elongated guide member 29 fastened to the main frame of the machine.

The lower end of the post 28 is connected by a pitman 31 with a crank 82 carried by a disk 33 upon the end of shaft 24:.

The operation of my invention is substantially as follows: Upon rotation of the shaft 24: the stack of blanks 1 in the magazine will be alternately raised and lowered by the vertically reciprocating plates 25. When in their lowermost position the bottom sheet in the magazine rests at its center upon the sucker-head 17 while its outer ends are bowed down somewhat as the plates 25 travel below the horizontal plane of the suckerhead. The eccentric 23 is so arranged with respect to the crank pin 82 that when the plates 25 are in their lowermost position the piston 22 will be in its uppermost position and upon further rotation of the shaft the piston will move downwardly, creating a suction in the sucker-head 17 which causes the center of the lowermost sheet to adhere firmly to the sucker-head so that when the plates 25 are elevated from their lowermost position to their uppermost position, as shown in Fig. 1, the lowermost sheet will be bowed downwardly with respect to the remainder of the stack, as shown. During the downward movement of the plates 25 the feed fingers 11 have passed rearwardly beneath the magazine so that they are now back of the magazine, and as the plates 25 rise, the fingers are moved forwardly, and their forwardly projecting ends will pass over the downwardly bowed sheet and beneath the next sheet above, and upon continued forward movement of these fingers this lowermost sheet will be carried bodily forward by the fingers from the magazine. The tendency of the remaining sheets in the magazine to travel forwardly with this lowermost sheet, as the result of the frictional contact between the lowermost sheet and the one above, is overcome by the central depending member 15 at the front of the magazine which retains all but the bowed down sheet in the magazine. This will be apparent from the inspection of Fig. 1, from which it will be seen that the lower end of the depending member 15 extends beneath the elevated stack of sheets but not far enough down to obstruct the removal of the lower bowed sheet.

When the plates 25 have reached the upper limit of their travel the piston 22 will begin to move upwardly thereby relieving the suction on the sucker-head so as to per mit the lowermost sheet then engaged by the fingers 11 to freely move from the magazine.

hen the lowermost sheet has been removed from the magazine, as above described, the feed fingers 11 are returned, and the operation is repeated at each revolution of the shaft 24.

It is believed that the construction and operation of the feed mechanism embodying my invention will be understood from the foregoing without further description, and it should be obvious that various changes in the size, shape, proportion and arrangement of the various parts illustrated and described may be resorted to without departing from the essence of the invention as defined in the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a sheet-feeding mechanism, the combination of a magazine, a stationary sucker disposed intermediate the sides of said magazine, means for alternately raising and lowering a stack of sheets in the magazine to bring the lowermost sheets successively into engagement with said sucker and means for removing said lowermost sheets successively from the magazine and sucker.

2. In asheet-feeding mechanism, the combination of a magazine, a stationary sucker, means for alternately moving a stack of sheets in the magazine toward and from said sucker, and means independent of said sucker for removing from the magazine that sheet which has been brought into engagement with the sucker.

3. In a sheet-feeding mechanisnnthe combination of a magazine, a. plurality of reciprocatory sheet-supporting plates, a sucker disposed between said plates, means for reciprocating the plates to successively engage the lowermost sheet in the magazine with said sucker, and reciprocatory mechanism for withdrawing said engaged sheet from the magazine.

4:. Inasheet-feeding mechanism, the combination of a magazine, a stationary sucker, a plurality of reciprocatory plates, movable, independently of the magazine, means for inducing a vacuum in said sucker when the plates are in one position and for relieving said vacuum when said plates are in another position.

5. In a sheet-feeding mechanism, the combination of a magazine, means for causing the major portion of the weight of a stack of sheets in said magazine to be supported alternately at the center and ends of said stack, said means including apparatus for bowing the center of the lowermost sheet downwardly, and means independent of said supporting means for withdrawing said lowermost sheet of the stack from the magazine.

6. In asheet-feeding mechanism, the combination of a magazine adapted to contain a stack of sheets, means for moving said stack bodily up and down in the magazine, a device disposed in the path of travel of said stack for limiting the movement of the central portion of said stack in one direction, and for preventing return movement of the central portion of one sheet in the opposite direction, and means for removing said one sheet from the magazine.

7. Inasheet-feeding mechanism, the combination of a magazine, a stationary sheet holding device mounted intermediate the sides of said magazine, near the bottom thereof, a pair of supporting members upon which the ends of the sheets are supported, means for moving said supporting members vertically across the horizontal plane of said sheet engaging and holding means to intermittently bring the lowermost sheet in the magazine into contact with said engaging means and means for removing said lowermost sheet from the magazine.

8. In a sheet-feeding mechanism, the com bination of a magazine, a sucker disposed beneath said magazine, a plate at each side of the magazine, a pair of reciprocatory members supporting each plate, a crosshead carrying all of said members, means for Vertically reciprocating said cross-head, and means for applying suction to said sucker-head.

9. In a sheet-feeding mechanism, the combination of a magazine, a sucker-head mounted beneath said magazine and intermediate the sides thereof, a pair of plates disposed Within the magazine, one at each side of said sucker-head, a pair of posts supporting each plate, means for vertically reciprocating all of said posts in unison, and means for applying suction to said GUS HEDSTROM. 

